How a Political Science Major Ended Up Running Revenue Operations
Most finance executives have predictable backgrounds: accounting degrees, early stints at Big Four firms, maybe an MBA. Taylor Thomson’s path looked nothing like this.
At Davidson College, he studied political science, economics, and Spanish—subjects that sound more suited to diplomatic work than corporate finance. “I wanted to be a lawyer at one point. I wanted to be an investment banker at one point,” Thomson recalls. “And then I decided that I wanted weekends.”
His friends who went into investment banking reported working until 4 AM regularly. That lifestyle held zero appeal. Instead, Thomson spent three years at a financial services firm in the expert network industry, learning to rapidly develop working knowledge of wildly different sectors. One day he’d be discussing pharmaceutical supply chains. The next day, wildfire investigation protocols in California.
This forced generalization proved more valuable than deep specialization. When Thomson transitioned to marketing technology, he brought an unusual skillset: the ability to quickly understand different industries, recognize patterns across domains, and communicate insights to varied audiences.
He spent six months as a BDR at a customer data platform company—cold calling, lead qualification, frontline sales reality. Then mid-market sales responsibilities. Each role added another layer of understanding about how B2B revenue actually works, not how business school textbooks say it should work.
The opportunity at WITHIN came next: building business development and revenue operations for a performance branding agency. The role combined everything—finance, operations, marketing, sales. Traditional org charts don’t have boxes for people like this. Thomson created the role by demonstrating its necessity.
Now he manages P&L reporting, financial forecasting, accounting oversight, and technology infrastructure. But the work extends beyond typical CFO territory. He develops client satisfaction surveys that achieve over 50% response rates. He leads AI implementation projects with data science teams. He redesigns sales processes and onboarding workflows.
Every morning, Thomson scans 15 industry newsletters, curating intelligence for his business development team. This isn’t typical finance work. It’s connective tissue that helps teams understand the world they’re operating in.
His advice for people trying to build similar careers? Study subjects that teach you how to think, not just what to know. Develop the ability to synthesize across domains rather than optimize within one. And recognize that the most interesting roles often don’t exist yet—you create them by solving problems nobody else is addressing.
The lesson: interdisciplinary backgrounds aren’t liabilities. In organizations that need people who can bridge functions, generalists who can synthesize beat specialists who can’t see beyond their domain. Thomson’s trajectory from political science student to revenue operations leader proves the point.